My Beer Year by Lucy Burningham
Driven by curiosity and thirst, longtime journalist Lucy Burningham set out to chronicle her escapades to becoming the ultimate beer expert—a Certified Cicerone. The result is an engaging and witty memoir entitled My Beer Year: Adventures with Hop Farmers, Craft Brewers, Chefs, Beer Sommeliers, and Fanatical Drinkers as a Beer Master in Training. Lucy introduces the reader to a colorful cast of beer-loving characters and sheds light on the charmingly quirky world of beer culture. Paperback; $16.95. roostbooks.com.

Tavour Beer Concierge Gift Certificate
Based in Seattle’s SoDo district, beer concierge startup Tavour has devised a convenient way to introduce beer lovers to new and different brews. Tavour’s team dispatches daily, curated beer offerings via e-mail—a mix of tasty local secrets and hard-to-find beers from around the world—and members simply reply back to order specific brews. In essence, members hand-select their own “variety packs” of fresh, unique beers, which are delivered to their door every few weeks. Prices vary. tavour.com.

The process behind this year’s Fresh Hop Harvest Ale from Flying Bike Cooperative Brewery was a little more complex than that of most brews. And a little more fun. Home-brewers and backyard gardeners from throughout the city had only 24 hours to harvest their homegrown hop plants, deliver them to Flying Bike Cooperative Brewery, pluck the hop flowers from the vines and throw them into the brewmaster’s boil. In the end, the brewery collected nearly 100 pounds of fresh hops for its hyper-local harvest ale, a testament to the appeal of its core mission: to create “member-driven beer.”

Just over a year old, Flying Bike is the first 100 percent cooperatively owned and operated brewery in Washington. With its popular homebrew competitions, brewer’s roundtable gatherings, and community giving program, the Greenwood-based collective offers a structured space for people who want to get involved in the local beer scene. The brewery’s thriving taproom adds to its reputation as an exceptional neighborhood establishment—a place to enjoy unique craft beers, learn about the brewing process, and build community.

It’s time for happy hour. A midweek interlude from everyday responsibilities. An evening to catch up with friends, sightsee with family, or relax with a partner. On this particular evening in late spring, happy hour involves a gangplank.

As the crowd walks single-file onto the Victoria Star 2, it sways, buoyed to the dock of Bellingham’s Alaska Ferry Terminal. Onboard, a few families settle at the tables and chairs that line the perimeter of the boat, while groups of friends and seasoned locals head straight to the main attraction: local craft brews.

With the San Juan Islands as a backdrop, couples hold hands on the boat’s outdoor decks and the vessel pulls away from the harbor. Inside, beers from Boundary Bay Brewery in Bellingham, Seattle’s Fremont Brewing, and Diamond Knot Brewery in Mukilteo fill the three tasting tables.

This social event is the second Bellingham Bay BREWers Cruise of 2016. Every Wednesday evening from late May through September, Washington breweries and beer enthusiasts come together for education and conversation. With three featured breweries each week pouring at least three beers apiece, brewers teach passengers about their craft: how they develop new beers, which strains of grain and yeast they use, and new collaboration projects they’re launching with other breweries.

The root beer float is a thing of summertime nostalgia, recalling joyful childhood afternoons, and maybe flashbacks to the lovable and carefree crew of Happy Days. It is also just the kind of fetishized indulgence ripe for a reboot in present-day Seattle, where we adults face social expectations to refine our palates, challenge our taste buds, and immerse ourselves in the world of more “sophisticated desserts.” So it’s no surprise that establishments around the city now offer adult ice cream dessert drinks like craft-beer floats and spirited shakes that showcase the nuances of unexpected flavor pairings—with deliciously whimsical results. […]

When Marley Rall first met her husband-to-be, a hobbyist home brewer, she knew almost nothing about beer. Four years, a wedding, and a career change later, Rall is carving out her own niche in the brewing industry.

It started when Rall noticed something about her husband’s home brewing process. She was shocked by the huge amount of by-product that went to waste after just a single batch of beer. A tenacious woman of many talents, Rall took a closer look and, after some detailed research into larger brewery operations, found much of the same. She also discovered that much of that waste, 85 percent on average, is spent grain that is discarded after its early role in the brewing life cycle.

Rall knew that that grain’s life was far from over. Building on her skills as an amateur home baker, she hatched an idea to bring the brewing process full circle. She met with local breweries to gauge interest and received an overwhelmingly positive response. Now Rall is the face of The Brewmaster’s Bakery, an innovative purveyor of sweet and savory snacks, granola, baked goods, and dog treats made with the spent grain from Seattle-area breweries. […]

Many beer enthusiasts are satisfied to spend a low-key evening at their favorite brewery, anchored to the bar, bantering with the tender, tasting hoppy brews, and soaking up the ambiance. Seattle certainly has a prolific array of neighborhood taprooms suitable for first dates, networking sessions, and friendly meet ups. However, for those who crave more than pretzels with their beer, breweries around Seattle are teaming up with a diverse set of community groups and hobbyists to add activities that include fitness, arts and crafts, and continuing education to the mix. […]